Oh, I don’t know. People used to have extended networks of family and community and didn’t have to do everything themselves. They didn’t need two incomes to survive. They didn’t have to homeschool, which was itself a full time job. They probably lived more agrarian lives, where the kids spent most of their time outside, helping with whatever work they could do.

Everything was different. Nothing is the same now. There’s only so much of you to go around, and if you can’t be everywhere at once, you’re going to do what you can to mitigate the load.